GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- OST's expansion of its headquarters on Grand Rapids' West Side is one more indicator at how fast the technology company is growing.

OST, short for Open Systems Technologies, plans to add 5,000 square feet for its application development practice. With the expansion, the firm is looking to hire an additional six to 10 full-time developers.

The new space at the firm’s corporate headquarters, located inside the historic former Drueke Game Building at 605 Seward Ave NW, will serve the firm’s growing application development practice, the largest in West Michigan with reported 2011 revenues of $7.5 million.

The renovation is expected to be completed by March 1, and the space will be used by the company's staff and contractors, as well as its clients' employees.

“A lot of our clients are interested in having their people in our space because it is a much more creative space,” said Rob Kellner, OST application development principal. “It seems to free up how people see and think about things.”

Jeff Kwiatkowski, global application solutions architect at Johnson Controls Inc., a client of OST, is in the company’s offices at least four days a week so he can work hand-in-hand with the OST team as they develop state-of-the-art energy management and analysis applications.

"With changing budget constraints, we are more dependent on our tech partners to understand our business needs and those of our customers," said Kwiatkowski.

Since the company’s move to the West Side in June 2010, OST has grown from 49 to 112 employees plus an additional 60 full-time contractors. Revenues for 2012 are expected to top $80 million, up 15 percent from $68 million in 2011.

The goal of the expansion is to create the ultimate space for application developers not just in West Michigan but the country. The design process has included hearing what both employees and clients such as Kwiatkowski want in a work space.

“We have been able to attract the top talent from the developer community both locally and nationally and leveraged each of them to gather input on how the new office should look, feel and function in order to provide the ultimate space for application development,” said Kellner. “Just as we have done with JCI, we plan to be very deliberate about bringing our clients in to work side-by-side with our developers in order to produce results that will transform the way they do business.”

Kellner says he expects the office to add more benching — a long tables where workers sit side-by-side — allowing for greater collaboration or hoteling where contractors can quickly plug in and get to work.

“We’ve kind of experimented with it and we’ve seen really great results,” Kellner said.

There will also other tools to encourage collaboration including video monitors, touch screens and white boards — along with fun elements that often lead to problem solving in a more relaxed setting. The company’s headquarters already includes a shuffle board on the third floor, and a Wii gaming console and dart board on the second floor. Kellner says he’ll be turning his staff to find the element that will be added to the new space on the first floor.

“In a lot of ways it has been exciting for the team to be this interactive in the work environment,” said Kellner, of his team who does coding, programming and designing of applications. “The environment is important to the (company's) growth.”

This year, OST also expanded geographically with the addition of an Ann Arbor office in March, and one in England in June and plans to open a downtown Detroit location early next year.